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Jewelry designer crafts a name

The defining characteristic of Sophia Readling’s work is her emphasis on color, which she has always been “obsessed” with. Most, if not all, of her pieces are bright-colored.(Photo: KATIE SULLIVAN / Staff photo)Buy Photo

"Growing up as a child, I was always wearing different clothes," the Binghamton artist said. "I loved adorning myself and accessories."

Often, she would imagine accessories she might wear, things she had never even seen.

"I would get a vision of a finished piece," she said. "Things that I wanted and couldn't find."

Now, Readling makes bold statement pieces and has created a name for herself, Sophia Sophia. Her job as a bartender at the Lost Dog Cafe in downtown Binghamton has helped her feel closer to the community. Several of her co-workers are fans of Readling's pieces and not only wear them to work, but also refer others to her. "It's great self-promotion," she said.

She has also been featured in First Friday events, and has shown her pieces at artists' markets in Rhode Island, Brooklyn and Syracuse. This past year, Readling's pieces were featured in three issues of Glamour UK magazine. She reaches much of her audience through her website, but also received a grant from the Broome County Arts Council last December to build a retail space inside her studio on State Street in Binghamton, a space she shares with her husband, Wally, also an artist. "I've definitely come a long way," Readling said.

Readling took her first jewelry class as a fine-arts major at the Pratt Institute, and there found her calling. She entered the school undecided on her concentration, but her jewelry class professor, whom she came to idolize, prompted a firm decision. "It started out as a really selfish thing," she admitted. "I thought it was just so awesome that I could learn how to make jewelry for myself."

Upon graduating, however, Readling moved directly into the occupation of making jewelry for others. She took a job in Manhattan with a fashion jewelry company, designing pieces for such retailers as Old Navy and Macy's. The job introduced Readling to the limitations of mass production. She would often hear, "We want five necklaces done in blue beads." The uniformity proved too restrictive for her.

"That's when I realized I didn't want to work for anyone else," she said.

Readling went back to school, earning a master's degree in jewelry making at the Rhode Island School of Design. While there, she also started creating unique pieces that better represented her creativity, like self-portrait necklaces. Returning home to Binghamton, however, was a reality check.

"I thought, 'How am I going to make this my career? Who is going to buy these crazy things?'"

She shifted gears in her artistry to appeal to a wider audience, while still maintaining her authenticity.

Her pieces are simultaneously unique and accessible, a combination Readling takes great pride in. "I'm more so into people being able to wear these things every day," she said. "They're still art objects, but more accessible to people who can't spend $5,000 on a necklace."

The defining characteristic of Readling's work is her emphasis on color, which she has always been "obsessed" with.

Most, if not all, of her pieces are bright-colored. They are not, she acknowledges, for the faint of heart. "There's a specific person that will wear my jewelry and a specific person that won't," Readling said. "That's just the nature of personal preference."

And who is that person?

"Definitely someone who is not afraid to stand out," she said.

Readling uses brass base metal and fabricates the shapes of her pieces from wire and sheet metal. She also has a few molds at a casting facility in New York City that she uses. The final step in the process is adding that distinctive color, for which Readling uses resin.

"I'm obsessed with the craft of it," she said. "I basically use a saw, a file, sandpaper. I'm into using a very small amount of tools, extending the tradition of the handcrafted."

The art of jewelry making goes back thousands of years, Readling said, and in spite of the time gap, it remains relevant. She resists the influence of technology to pull away from that. "There's already so much technology in this world that I'm consumed by," she said. "Having roots in something that totally takes me to the hand-crafted, tangible world is really comforting."

Equally comforting is the idea of Readling's work having the power to generate confidence.

"People are nervous to wear big jewelry; big, loud things," she said. "I think (I try) to help people bridge the gap of being afraid of that."

And as much as Readling enjoys making jewelry for others, she never stops picturing pieces in her mind that she would like to wear herself.

"I think about jewelry all day long."

Sophia Readling (Sophia Sophia)

Age: 27.

Residence and hometown: Binghamton.

Education: Bachelor of fine arts degree from Pratt Institute; master's degree in jewelry metalsmithing from Rhode Island School of Design.